The show’s final episode deals with a love triangle, man, wife. and mistress. Except the mistress is a “biorob” (short for biological robot, I gather.) She is cloned from a famous video star, but her mental processes are changed so that she will just do whatever she can to please her owner. Sounds a bit more human that a robot would be, but such are the ways of Betaville. Ardley Mendoza goes to the seller and buys the top of the line model, patterned after a vid star named Dorothy Duncan. He names her Dorothy, takes her home, and that’s when we’re surprised to find out he already has a wife. (Or at least we would have been surprised, if the host hadn’t given that plot point away in his opening.)
Though Dorothy is undeniably attractive, Ardley’s wife Aura is played by the intriguing Alice Krige, who made an unforgettable impression in the movie GHOST STORY. She would seem more exciting than the beauty. But curiously, the early scenes don’t seem to bolster the conflict. Aura is seen having a little fling with her co-worker Peter early on. After she gets so upset about Ardley bringing Dorothy home, Peter comments that she hasn’t slept with Ardley in years and she even says at one point, “I can’t even remember what brought us together.” Indeed, when Ardley is with Dorothy, he tells her he hasn’t been this close to a woman in so long. The logic is there that she is frustrated about being unable to fight for her marriage against a biorob, who has everything she has but none of the flaws. At one point, she considers killing Dorothy, but can’t bring herself to do it. Dorothy is always polite to Aura and seems to want to help her as well. It’s not in her nature to fight.
In the latter third of the show, Aura finally begins to remember the closeness they once had. She makes breakfast for Ardley and talks about the old times. But he still runs off to be with his biorob. Only, this time he begins to see how vapid and unreal she really is. It’s done in a nicely subtle way without laying it on thick. He runs back to Aura and catches her just before she is leaving. He asks for a second chance and invites her on a date that night so they can start all over. She smiles happily at this second chance. We than pan over to Dorothy still standing where he told her to stay. We expect it to end with the shot of her pointlessly waiting there, but instead she smiles and says, “I knew there was something nice I could do for you, Aura.”
I liked that little twist and it would have been a great place to end the story. But instead we have a totally pointless final scene where Peter goes to the Biorob Center to buy one for himself and ends up picking Dorothy. Since he was earlier telling Aura that they should just be having fun until they got tired of it, a biorob would be perfect for him. I kept waiting for some kind of a punchline, like for Dorothy to end up looking like Aura, but no – nothing there. He just bought her and seemed happy. My only conclusion is that this was a happy ending for the Biorob. She helped patch up the Mendoza’s marriage, so now instead she is joined up with someone who will just enjoy her for what she is.
Overall, I like the concept. It’s sort of the anti-STEPFORD WIVES idea, the famous book and movie (referring to the original and not the pathetic attempt at a remake) where husbands have their wives killed and replaced with robots designed to look and act like them but never criticize or nag their husbands. This story shows the flaw in the ointment – the biorob isn’t real and never will be. True love is a challenge, but worth the extra effort to make it work. The story would have been better if the earlier scenes had emphasized the relationship the Mendozas had once had, rather than waiting until close to the end to finally let it burst forth almost all at once. I’ll still give this one 8 blueberry breakfasts with talks about dancing and yellow strawberries (I think.)
